California Biographies
Source:
History of Napa and Lake Counties
San Francisco, Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1881
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 2011
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
DAVID HUDSON. Whose portrait appears in the body of this work, was born in Lexington, Missouri,
October 15, 1820, where he resided with his parents until he was about seventeen years of age. He
then moved with his parents to Dade County, where they died in 1840. David remained there engaged
in farming and stock raising until 1844, when he returned to Lexington and remained there until May,
1845, when he, in company with his brother William, and his sister and her husband, John York, now of
St. Helena, started across the plains for California, and arrived at Johnsons Ranch October 15th of that
year. They arrived in Napa Valley about the first of November, and spent the first winter where
Calistoga now stands. In the spring of 1846 he engaged in the Bear Flag War, and then joined the
Mexican volunteer service, being in it until 1847. In the spring of that year he returned to Napa Valley
and bought land near St. Helena. He went to the mines in El Dorado County, upon the discovery of
gold, where he operated with good success, often digging out $125 a day. In the fall of 1848, on
account of failing health he returned to Napa Valley and settled on land which he had previously
bought, and engaged in farming and stock raising until 1873. He found that his health was failing, his
trouble being asthma, hence he moved to Lake County and settled on his present place, consisting of
one thousand two hundred acres, located in Coyote Valley, where he has since resided, being
engaged in farming and stock raising. Mr. Hudson was married, December 9, 1847, to Miss Frances
Griffith, a native of North Carolina. They have six living children: Rodney J., Livonia, Elbert, Luella, Ada
and Robert L. ; and have lost one, Bertha.